There are a variety of known shunted electrical connectors, including connectors of the modular jack type, wherein selected different terminals of the connector are shunted or shorted for various purposes. Examples of such connectors are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,863,393 to Ward et al, dated Sep. 5, 1989; 4,874,333 to Reed, dated Oct. 17, 1989; 4,952,170 to Pritulski, dated Aug. 28, 1990; and 4,123,854 to Petersen et al, dated Jun. 23, 1992, the latter patent being assigned to the assignee of this invention. All of these patents show one form or another of a modular jack type connector which includes such components as shorting elements, bridging cards, shunting strips and the like to shunt or short selective different terminals of the connectors, particularly when the connectors are not receiving a mating connector plug. For instance, the shunting elements may be used to maintain line continuity when no plug is inserted into the jack.
Generally, electrical connectors of the character described above include spring beam contacts which protrude from a portion of the jack housing into the receiving cavity of the jack. The contacts or terminals may be separated from each other by molded walls of the jack. The terminals include terminal portions, usually in the form of terminal pins, for mating with the terminals of a complementary electrical component. For instance, the terminal pins may form solder tails for insertion into holes in a printed circuit board. In some instances, the terminal pins or solder tails are arranged in a single row, and in other instances the terminal pins or solder tails are arranged in two rows.
It often is desirable to incorporate passive electrical components, such as resistors or capacitors, in the circuitry of the shunt and/or the shunted terminals. Heretofore, in order to incorporate such passive electrical components in the circuit, the components were incorporated somewhere outside the modular jack itself, such as in the printed circuit board with which the jack is interconnected. While it has become fairly easy to change the shunting characteristics of the jack, or even programming the shunt means itself, incorporating such passive electrical components in the printed circuit board would require customizing the board and the inherent cost and inventory problems associated therewith.
This invention is directed to solving those problems by a simple concept of incorporating the passive electrical components directly on the shunting device, itself, either on or within the jack.